BMW M5 (2018 – 2023) Review

Every model range needs a halo model, and for the BMW 5 Series that’s the BMW M5 Competition. BMW might only sell tiny numbers of these 625PS twin turbocharged V8 rocketships in comparison to more pragmatic 5 Series models, but there’s not a 5 Series out there that’s been sprinkled with a little bit of desirability because of from the M5’s existence. 

Few cars can really be described as being classified as iconic, but the BMW M5 is among them. Ever since it first arrived it’s shocked with its speed, wowed with its agility and kept high performance sports and supercars honest, despite having the ability to haul your family and friends along for the ride, too.

That it’s based on the always highly regarded 5 Series is no bad thing, but in the M5, and specifically today’s M5 Competition, is, in the best tradition of Spinal Tap, a 5 Series ‘turned up to 11’.

Remaining relatively sober-suited in its looks, the M5 Competition pulls off the subterfuge that all M5s before it have, which is to shoehorn massive potential performance into the recognisable, and useful, BMW 5 Series shape. 

In the M5 Competition that means there’s a 4.4-litre 625PS twin turbocharged V8 petrol engine under the bonnet, enough to allow it to reach 62mph in 3.3 seconds, and, should you send a few more pounds BMW’s way and option the M Driver’s package, lift the electronic speed limiter from the standard 155mph, to a more heady 190mph – which might be useful if you visit Germany regularly. 

The current model was introduced in 2018 as the mere 600PS M5, but within a few short months of that arriving BMW added the M5 Competition model to the range. This upped the power to 625PS, giving the styling a bit of a edgier look with a dark grille and other gloss black trim parts, standard 20-inch wheels and M Sport exhaust and no-doubt annoying those early customers who’d already had their regular M5s delivered.

Nobody in this league is going to buy a lesser car from BMW’s configurator, and so it transpired, as shortly after the M5 Competition’s arrival the standard M5 was quietly dropped from the line-up – in other markets the Competition Pack remains a cost option.  

The M5 might be based on the 5 Series, but unlike its handful of rivals BMW only offers its most potent 5 with as a saloon, denying you the ability to fill the boot with flatpack furniture, or, more likely, the Chocolate Labrador and a Fortnum and Mason picnic hamper.

Saloon rivals include the Mercedes-AMG E63 S 4 Matic+, the Porsche Panamera Turbo/Turbo S and Maserati Quattroporte Trofeo, with Alpina offering its take on a fast 5 Series in as the B5 Bi-Turbo, it being available in both saloon and estate forms.

Audi’s RS6 offers similar performance, too, but it is only available as an estate, and if you’re broadening the genre there’s a host of similar performance SUVs out there, BMW itself offering its X5 and X6 models in M guise. 

We doubt that a performance SUV would be bought in place of an M5 Competition, the flagship BMW a very niche machine, that’s a talented, fast all-rounder, for those occasions when you’re in a hurry and you need more than the two seats of the rest of the cars in your garage. 

Looking for a second opinion? Read heycar's review of the BMW M5

The M5 Competition added a 7mm drop in ride height over the M5 which it replaced in the UK, it also benefitting from revisions to the spring and damper rates, ball-jointed rear suspension, changes to the geometry and spring and damper settings.

It’s the most focussed, sharpest driving BMW 5 Series you can buy, that ability having a slightly detrimental effect on the overall ride quality, but one that’s well worth it for the agility and ability that the M5 Competition offers. 

With this generation of BMW M5 the company added four-wheel drive, though the chassis remains rear-biased, with the front axle only really coming into play when slip is detected at the rear.

There’s the option within the sizeable configuration possibilities of the drivetrain, chassis and driver aids to switch it to rear-wheel drive only, though doing so switches off all the traction and stability aids, so that’s a setting best left for ruining your tyres at a track. 

What’s powering the M5 has always been central to the experience, it throughout its lifetime having been powered by a straight-six, through to a V10.

In these more environmentally conscious times BMW underplays the M5’s powerplant – not even mentioning its specification in the sales brochures – but these days it’s a 4.4-litre twin turbocharged V8.

It produces 625PS at 6,000rpm, those turbochargers delivering massive, low-rev torque, with some 750Nm arriving at 1,800rpm and hanging around until 5,800rpm. That makes it massively quick and flexible in any of the eight gears that fill the automatic transmission, these able to be shifted by the paddleshifters on the steering wheel. 

That engine and transmission can be configured via the driver, allowing faster responses if the mood takes you, but in any of the settings it’s a hugely potent, very fast car.

Find a setting that suits you when you’re in a hurry and you can programme it to one of the M shortcut buttons on the steering wheel, giving you some duality with your M5, with more comfortable settings for daily duties, and a more taut, exciting car available at the push of a button.

The V8 lacks the voice of the best of its rivals, indeed, it’s sounds are supplemented via the car’s audio system and it can sound a bit synthetic, but there’s no denying the performance on offer, with 62mph arriving in just 3.3 seconds – that a number more applicable to sports and supercars than a five-seat saloon. 

Being based on the BMW 5 Series the M5 Competition comes with all the passive and active safety equipment you’d expect in an executive class car.

Along with the numerous, and configurable driver assistance systems, there’s stability control, anti-lock brakes, dynamic brake control with dry braking function, a tyre pressure monitoring system, front, side and head airbags for the front passengers, with side curtain airbags running the length of the entire cabin.

There’s a standard head-up display, which means you don’t have to take your eyes off the road to read the instruments.

The outer rear back seats come with Isofix child seat mounts, and BMW includes its Driving Assistant as standard, it including speed limit information, lane departure warning and lane change warning as well as cross traffic warning, among other active aids.

There’s pedestrian detection, and optionally you can add Driving Assistant Plus and Dynamic Safety, these adding full, automatic, emergency braking functionality as well as driver drowsiness monitoring – the latter included as standard on most rivals. Tested by EuroNCAP, in that independent crash testing assessment, the 5 Series scored a full five-star award.   

The M5 can be fitted with a towbar, but we doubt there’ll be many caravaners buying an M5 to tow, they’ll be better served elsewhere in the 5 Series line-up if they’re after that.

More likely a towbar on an M5 might be used for a towball-mounted bike rack, but should you wish, on occasion, to use your M5 to tow a trailer, then it’ll haul as much as 2000kg with a braked trailer.

It’s a BMW 5 Series, so you get all the practicality that that brings, only here with the most potent of motors under its more muscularly-shaped bonnet. It’ll seat four adults in real comfort, with good head and leg room in the back seats, the fifth, middle seat, better thought of as for occasional use. 

The outer rear seats have Isofix mounts for child seats, and if you’re carrying the kids then the 530 litre capacity of the boot will swallow even the plushest of buggies, though you’ll not have quite the access to that boot space as you’ll manage with the M5’s estate car rivals.

The bootlid is electrically powered, there’s a split-fold rear seat (if you option the Comfort Package), and through-loads – think skis, not ladders – can be accommodated thanks to a hatch through the rear armrest.

Obviously, as the range-topper, the M5 Competition benefits from a host of revisions, with the interior taking on a more overtly sporting look, and there’s plenty scope for personalisation in relation to the trim materials, whether your preference be wood, carbon fibre or aluminium.

The gear selector and steering wheel are unique to the M5 Competition, that steering wheel having some M specific buttons on it, and a girth that some might find a bit ungainly. Otherwise, the M5’s interior is superb, and being the flagship model it comes with a host of standard equipment, most of which is described below.

The M5 Competition comes with the same sort of touch and gesture-controlled central screen of its rivals, along with a configurable digital instrument panel, but BMW has kept the central display sensibly sized, and not thrown out all the buttons in the process.

That, allied to the excellent iDrive controller between the front seats, makes all the various functions relatively easy to operate, and keeps the screen largely free of fingerprints. The programmable shortcut buttons underneath the screen are very useful, too. 

There’s a huge amount contained within the entertainment system, with nav, online connectivity, a standard Harmon Kardon DAB HD stereo – which if you pay more can be upgraded to Bowers & Wilkins – while Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is also possible, which makes a lot of BMW’s own connected apps and suchlike pretty much redundant.

BMW offers the M5 Competition with its Connected Key’ an optional device, the functions it adds we’re yet to be convinced by, and the fact it’s got a screen and needs charging overrides any ‘convenience’ it’s supposed to add. There’s a useful head-up display as standard, too.  

The M5 Competition’s price is a couple of thousand pounds shy of £100,000, but it’s inconceivable that any M5 Competition will be bought without a few options pushing it up into the six figure sphere.

That might seem like a lot for BMW 5 Series, but the M5 Competition is a car that’s able to keep Ferraris and Porsches honest with its performance, while still being able to carry four and luggage in comfort.

Used, the M5 Competition looks like a conspicuously good buy, with depreciation hitting hard, meaning if you’re prepared to buy an M5 that’s a year or so old, with a few miles on its odometer, you’ll make substantial savings. 

Fuel consumption is officially quoted at between 25.2 and 27.7mpg on the official combined test cycle, but the reality will likely be closer to high teens in normal use, with single figures possible if you drive it using all of its performance.

A long motorway run might see you achieve that consumption figure, but if you’re using it on the motorway then, really, you’re using it wrong. It’ll wear through expensive high performance tyres quickly, while other consumables like brake pads won’t be cheap to replace.

Servicing costs will be at typical BMW hourly rates, which will be significantly lower than you’d pay at dealerships of the cars the M5 Competition’s performance rivals. 

Insurance group 50 means you’ll pay handsomely to cover it, while all those Connected Apps that come with the M5 are only free for the first three years, after that you’ll need to pay a subscription charge to retain and use the services.

Naturally, new, the M5 Competition attracts a sizeable – over £2000 – VED charge, with five years of £475 after that before reverting to the standard VED charges. All that aside, depreciation will be the biggest cost, with the M5 Competition losing a big chunk of its value in the first few years of ownership. 

The BMW M5 Competition gets alloy wheels, head-up display, Apple CarPlay, climate control, heated, powered seats, leather interior, DAB.